Castle Storm

About
The game that FGC is working on is called Castle Storm. In Castle Storm, you start as an adventurer with nothing but the clothes on your back. Your goal is to travel across the country and, by making the right choices, getting the best gear, and having the best party members, storm the castle of the Forces of Darkness that threaten your fair land.In terms of genre, the game would be a 3rd-person adventure RPG.

Engine
Castle Storm runs on the Unity 3D engine.

Gameplay
If you've ever played The Banner Saga, then the gameplay of Castle Storm is pretty similar to that. Basically, you start in a town, where you're given a few options and quests to get money/gear/people, and then you have to survive the journey to the next town, on which you may be threatened by monsters, bandits, starvation, etc.

You start the game in a desert "hub." In hub mode, the camera follows the player in traditional 3rd-person style, hovering behind the head. In later hubs that actually have buildings and people, you will be able to interact with NPCs and do quests.

After a short introduction to the game, you leave the "hub" and enter travel mode. In travel mode, the camera hovers far above the player, and the day/night cycle is accelerated to show the passage of time. Later, your companions and supply wagon will also tag along. Occasionally, monsters will wander into your view and initiate combat.

In combat, you have to use your own skills and those of your party members to defeat your enemies with minimal damage taken. You will be rewarded with loot and experience points.

Your ultimate goal is to travel across the land to defeat the forces of evil on their own turf.

Game Mechanics
The core mechanics of Castle Storm are: Each of these mechanics can be implemented in a several different ways. For example, the "combat" mechanic could be implemented through turn-based combat (as seen in Final Fantasy or Pokemon) or through a 3-D based, more action-packed combat system (like Dark Souls or even Super Mario 64). The main difference between these two implementations is that one (turn based) is much easier to create than the other, at the cost of fluid/dynamic gameplay.
 * Combat
 * Survival
 * Persuasion (convincing NPCs to give you food, supplies, or to join your party)
 * Exploration - having an atmosphere that actually draws the player in rather than just serving as a background

Our development plan is to start with the easy-to-implement mechanics and, once those are mastered, "upgrade" to the more complex ones. (That is, if the complex ones are actually more fun to play with - not just complexity for the sake of complexity)

Minimum Viable Product
The first stage of development is to get a minimal version of the game up and running. For this, we use the following:

Turn-Based Combat
(Main Page: Turn-Based Combat)

Each turn, you choose which move each of your party members will take or which item they will use. You also have the option to reposition your party members.

Once you have prepared your move, you click to execute your orders. After all the moves have been made, the enemy team will respond with their own.

In combat, different types of enemies will be vulnerable to different types of attacks (water against fire, for example). You can also get better armor and weapons to increase your health, defense and attack points. This gives the player a reason to recruit a party with diverse skills and to explore for better items.

Travel
While travelling between hubs, you have to make sure that your party isn't killed by marauders or starvation. For one, this means stocking up on supplies whenever you get to a city. It also means you have to make decisions on how to travel to your next destination. For example, do you take the long, mostly flat route that's infested with bandits, or the short route that goes through the icy mountains?

In addition to this, routes will also be sprinkled with Locations of Significance (LOS). These aren't quite hubs, but they contain optional quests that may reward you with extra loot. These could be tiny villages, or dungeons.

Scripted NPCs
Each NPC will be hard-coded with a list of things that will make them happy or angry with you. If you do the things that make them happy, they might reward you. Otherwise, they may just dislike you, or they might attack your party.

Exploration
This isn't exactly a mechanic, but the aesthetic and lore of the game will help draw the player into the world of Castle Storm. Good design and well-written dialog contribute to this.

After MVP
More info on this will be added later, once we start getting close to finishing the Minimum Viable Product.